Ten Dreams of the Phoenix
by Rhianna-Aurora
Summary: A collection of drabbles, each one a different dream of Ashe's.  They begin at the death of Rasler, and go until the end of the game.  SPOILERS!  There is some heavily implied BalthierAshe here.
1. Death

_**I. Death**_

After the funeral, she dreamt that Death came to her.

It was dark and black and fetid. It had no face, and she hated it, but she wanted it and she didn't know why. The black veil she'd worn to say her final goodbyes was smothering her, and she fought it, fought like hell to make it go away, but it _wouldn't go away_.

Right before it took her, before she let herself go, he was there, shining and golden and as perfect as the day he left her, and he sliced the shroud off of her and helped her stand up.

"Go on," he told her, and she knew what he meant.

And she went on.


	2. Rats

_**II. Rats**_

She dreamt of rats often whilst living in the sewers with the Resistance. She thought nothing of it, for she saw rats all the time during her waking hours.

But the night before they were to storm the palace during the fete for the new consul, the biggest rat spoke to her, told her she fought a losing battle, and that she should do what the Empire wanted.

The rat sounded like Vossler.


	3. Flying

_**III. Flying**_

After speaking with Vaan in Jahara, she dreamt of him, much more solemn than she'd ever seen him. He stood at the same bridge that they had spoken on earlier. "I think it's time to let go," he said.

"Let go?" she asked him. "But why?"

"It's time to fly, Ashe," he replied, and suddenly they were in the Strahl, and Vaan was gone.

"Vaan?" she said hesitantly.

"Shh," said another male voice, a voice that came from somewhere down a long hallway. "Vaan's sleeping. But you should wake up now."

"I don't want to," she said petulantly to the unseen man.

He laughed. "And therein lies your problem."


	4. The Unknown

_**IV. The Unknown**_

Fran stood alone in a field of some fragrant grass, aiming her bow and shooting her arrows far off into the distance. Ashe did not approach her, she knew not what to say to one so wise.

"Ashe, will you get my arrows?" The viera spoke, not looking at Ashe as she pulled another arrow from her quiver.

"But you have plenty," Ashe told her.

"I need the others. They're in the forest."

"You want _me _to go into the forest for your arrows?" Ashe asked imperiously.

"You must," was all Fran said.

Ashe looked at the ominously dark woods and shook her head. "I'm afraid."

Fran turned and smiled at her. "You won't be alone," she said calmly. "He'll be there."

"Rasler?" Ashe asked, running to the glade of trees. "Rasler!"

"Don't you think it's time to wake up, Princess?" The same voice from another dream said to her. "Your Prince can't fix everything."

"Who _are_ you? Go away!" Ashe felt the familiar weight of the Sword of Kings in her hands and she swung at the unknown man.

"Only you can make yourself stop dreaming about me," he said before he vanished.


	5. Dancing

_**V. Dancing**_

She learned on the way to Mt. Bur-Omisace that Penelo was a dancer in Rabanastre, and that night, she dreamt of dancing.

Penelo was cheerful, optimistic, dancing in a field of stars, pleading with Ashe to join her. "It's fun!" the younger girl told her. "You should learn to relax!"

"I can't!" Ashe responded. "I'm going to be Queen."

"Even Queens need to dance, Ashe," Penelo chastised her, but her voice suddenly sounded faraway.

Rasler appeared and took Ashe's hand. Together they started to dance in Penelo's field of stars. The stars faded and became the deck of the Strahl; the sky above them was illuminated by the brightest sun Ashe had ever seen, and it was blinding her.

She looked up at her husband, smiling, but her smile faltered. She could see only the shadow of the man she danced with, for the light of the sun was in her eyes. And she didn't think that she was dancing with Rasler any more.


	6. Unfocused

_**VI. Unfocused**_

She was poisoned by the Elder Wyrm and her dreams were disjointed and confused for several days afterwards. She dreamt of stars and sunshine and meadows and her father and her brothers and Rasler and of Vaan, Penelo, Basch, Fran, and Balthier. They all swirled together as though they were being mixed into a paint can and making the color called Ashelia.


	7. Rescue

_**VII. Rescue**_

The engine was humming, a sort of lullaby as she lie in her bed. She heard a voice, and it sounded like _him_, coming from somewhere nearby, so she got out of bed and walked out of her cabin.

The farther along the Strahl's corridor she walked, the more the interior seemed to change, and suddenly she was standing before two doorways. One looked like the door to her bedchamber in the palace. The other looked like the door to a mausoleum. "Rasler," she breathed as she reached her hand out for the second door.

"Ashe!"

The first door opened, and there he was, bright and golden and as perfect as that day on the Phon Coast when he'd shared his story. Her hand hesitated over the door as she looked up at him.

"Rasler," she whispered. "Rasler's in there! I have to get to him!"

"Ashe, Ashe, you can't. If you go there … you'll never come back," Balthier said.

"But … Rasler!" She tugged at the handle and the door flew open to reveal an vortex of eerie nothingness. No color, no sound, no light. She screamed and fell to her knees. "Rasler! Rasler, NO! Balthier, he's supposed to be _here_. I'm not … I can't be all alone. That's not … possible."

"Ashe … don't you see it? There's _nothing_ there for you now," Balthier told her, his arms around her waist, helping her stand. He opened the second doorway wider and Ashe's eyes fell on a gilded world … with the Royal Palace of Rabanastre gleaming like a jewel in the center. "This is where you should be. Go on."

And Ashe went on, but she took Balthier with her through the door.


	8. Yearning

_**VIII. Yearning**_

Everything had a softer glow here, in this unknown place. And there were lips and there were hands, and skin and sweat and murmured moans and whispered promises that didn't mean anything -- but they meant _everything_.

There was fire, and a longing she hadn't ever felt, and she didn't know who he was, but she _knew_ who he was. And it was better than she had imagined anything could be.

His tongue was trailing down her neck and she was whimpering for more in a way she had never known she could. Fingers threaded into hair and mouths joined at the very moment _they _joined and her whimpers became screams, and all she knew was him, and all she wanted was him, and she woke up with his name still on her lips.


	9. The Raven

_**IX. The Raven**_

The night before they were to go to the Sky Fortress Bahamut, Ashe saw the Raven in her dream again. She had had this dream before, two years prior.

Ashe chased the black bird down, praying, praying that it would circle the Empire … praying it would stay away from her friends. But as she followed it through desert, forest, tundra, water … begging it to come back, to stop, to _go away _… it just flew onward. She burst through a thicket of trees and felt her heart stop.

The Raven had landed on the Strahl.

"No, go away, _damn you_!" she sobbed, running at it, trying to scare it away. The Raven did not budge. "You can't. You can't take him. You can_not_ do this to me again!"

But the Raven only stared at her, unblinking.

She didn't remember having this dream upon waking the next day. She didn't remember it until dusk, when the Bahamut fell from the sky.


	10. Phoenix

_**X. Phoenix**_

The night before the Strahl was "stolen" from Vaan and Penelo, the Phoenix appeared to Ashe. She had not ever dreamt of the bird before, but she did not fear him. Instead, she felt a lightening in her heart that she couldn't explain.

The bird was fiery and golden and had gentle hazel eyes that made Ashe smile. She stood on the high peak of a distant mountain and waited for him at midnight, her arms outstretched in welcome.

He carried with him a piece of parchment that he dropped at the Queen's feet, and she knelt to pick it up, but she didn't read it, for the Phoenix had flown high into the air and the sky was suddenly ablaze with an abundance of light and color that danced and swirled madly.

And then the lights faded, and the stars appeared, and they spelled out Balthier's name.

Ashe looked at the parchment she held and saw one word, emblazoned in gold.

_Alive_.


End file.
